From the Chin Dynasty till this century, Confucianism was the leading force in shaping ethics in China.  It was the centre of Chinese culture and had great achievements in the past.  Nevertheless, its influence had inevitably come to an end after the "May-Fourth" cultural movement.  Although scholars like Zhang Dong-sun, Feng You-lan, and He Lin tried to revive Confucianism by pouring into it certain modern and contemporary elements from the West, all efforts failed.  All these attempts, at least in the Mainland China, were smashed by a blustery social revolution.

The embryonic stage is one filled with many errors.  It was continuously interrupted by politics.  In new China, in its first ten years, although moral cultivation was highly praised in the society, it was hotly debated whether or not ethics should be studied under the umbrella of Marxism.  Marx, Engel and Lenin did not take ethics as an independent subject for academic studies.  Though important moral instructions were given, ethical questions were always regarded as secondary in comparison to economic and political questions.  In the first forty years of the establishment of the U.S.S.R., ethics had never been taken as an academic discipline with its own identity.  When China had to follow the policy of "learning everything after the U.S.S.R.", the studies of ethics was neglected.  Moreover, scholars in the first stage did not dare to employ the Marxist principles to deal with moral problems.  The "left" way of thinking created a stagnancy, for the people of that time viewed the moral teachings left behind by imperial China as feudalistic and those from the West as capitalistic.  However, the situation started to change from the end of the 1950s till 1964.  Not only did the U.S.S.R. begin to study ethics, but also important works by Russian scholars were translated.  The more significant change was that, by studying Chinese culture, scholars began to realise the necessity and importance of ethics.  In this stage, Li Qi released a series of articles on Xin Jian She [New Establishments] and Guang Ming Daily.  He openly advocated the need of building up the Marxist ethics.  He discussed its characteristics, duties, research method and basic content.  These articles were finally edited as Dao-de Ke-xue Chu-xue-ji [Introductory Essays on the Scientific Study of Morality] published by  the Shanghai Ren-min Publisher.  Moreover, the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had organised a research group on ethics and began to admit Master students.  Simultaneously, Zhou Yuan-bing of Shanghai wrote Dao-de Ke-xue Lun-ji [Essays on the Scientific Study of Morality].  Professor Luo Guo-jie of the Zhong-guo Ren-min [People of China] University edited not only the first curriculum on ethics but also established a research centre for ethics.  Professor Zhang Dai-nian of the Beijing University edited Zhong-guo Lun-li Si-xiang Fa-zhan Gui-lu De Chu-bu Yan-jiu [A Preliminary Study on the Development of Chinese Ethical Thoughts].  Professor Zhou Fu-cheng edited Xi-fang Lun-li-xue Ming-zhu Xuan-ji [Selected Works on Western Ethics Studies], volume 1, etc.  However, the flourishing of ethics studies did not last long.  The Cultural Revolution exploded these efforts. The political criticism of Wu Han's three articles including Shuo Dao-de [On Morality] had prepared for the coming of the Cultural Revolution.  Then the "campaign against the four oldies" denied all morality.  This was a society in which good and evil were reversed.  It was permeated with "strike, tramp, rob, confiscate, grab".  "Gentle, kind, respectful, frugal, courteous" were rejected.  The word "morality" had not only been forgotten but also ridiculed.  Someone thought that the Cultural Revolution was a product of "moralism"; in fact, it was a product of "amoralism".
 

In reviewing the first stage, one can conclude that society, morality and ethics are inseparable.  Ethics is a unique cultural domain with its special content and bears a special responsibility.  Nothing can take its place.  It has a complicated relationship with politics and law, yet both of them could not replace ethics.  In the first twenty years, especially during the Cultural Revolution, ethics was neglected and was replaced by politics and law.  Moral problems were not dealt with adequately.  Either they were taken as "trivial" things or were taken as serious political "offenses".  Thus, the penalties were usually out of proportion.  Moreover, in youth education, political education replaced moral education.  What the adolescents learned were political slogans or even wrong political dogmas.  When these political teachings lost their charm, these young people immediately found difficulties in handling complicate social relationships.  Thus, the lesson that I have learned is that:  one should take morality seriously.  Ethics studies must be emphasized.  By studying ethics, one could realise how morality can be cultivated.  Then one can give guidance to the community in order to help its members to practice morality.

Firstly, with regard to works on theory, writings of renowned scholars were published.  These included Li Qi's Dao-de Xue-shuo [On the Theories of Ethics] by Zhong-guo She-hui Ke-xue [Chinese Social Sciences] Publisher, Zhou Yuan-bing's Gong-chan-zhu-yi Dao-de Tong-lun [An Introduction to Communist Ethics] by Hua-dong [Eastern China] Shi-fan Da-Xue [Normal University] Publisher and Luo Guo-jie's Ma-ke-si Zhu-yi Lun-li Xue [Marxist Ethics] by Ren-min [People] Publisher.  All of them attempted to construct a theory and took "either human society or human in society" as a basis.  They shared that all moral values are fundamentally  determined by human economic relationships, especially by material interest.  Human morality is developed in a dialectic process and is always in coherence with the development of the society.  In a class society, human morality has strong class orientation.  What these scholars emphasized was the importance of community benefit and values.  They proposed a socialist moral system guided by collectivism.  The norms applauded include: serve the people; demonstrate a communist working attitude; care for the public properties; love science passionately; uphold the truth; cultivate patriotism and internationalism.  Others include: social conduct; ethics of love, marriage and the family; professional ethics.  These values were praised by most ethicists in China and became contents in text books and popular readings circulated widely in the society in general and schools in particular.

Moreover, during this stage of recovery and vitality, there were continuous debates around three areas.  The first area concerns human nature and humanism.  Some scholars attempted to summarize what we could learn from the "Cultural revolution" by using a humanistic approach.  They believed that "human being is the starting point of Marxism" and emphasized "the value of human being", "human dignity", "natural human desire", etc..  For them, abstract "human nature" should be the basis of ones world view and historical perspective.  Historical development was described as a "person - non-person - person" process.  Human beings were alienated and regained their personhood.  This was an issue closely related to ethics.  In 1984, Hu Qiao-mu published an important article on "Concerning Humanism and Alienation."  He pointed out that humanism has two meanings.  One is the subjective world view and historical perspective.  This is fundamentally contrary to Marxism.  The other is the objective ethical principle or moral norm.  One should carefully distinguish between capitalistic and socialist humanism.  Capitalistic humanism should be criticized and socialist humanism should be supported.

The third area concerns the relationship between individual and community.  In Chinese history, social and communal relationships have been strongly emphasized.  Even after the "May Fourth" movement, individualism has never flourished.  Since the establishment of the New China, collectivism has been stressed.  Some of them openly ridiculed Lei Feng, the moral model, as an  "idiot".  They attempted to "legitimatize" individualism.  Some advocated "rational egoism", that is, "subjectively caring for oneself, objectively caring for others".  Some thought that instead of taking the collective or the social as the measure for moral deliberation, one should take "individual as the measure".  Still others thought that "individual and communal should be taken as having the same value".  Many articles have pointed out that these positions have deep emotion in protecting the rights of individual.  This is a reaction against the "left" extreme that always neglects individual rights.  Nevertheless, these positions have neglected the social nature of humankind, exaggerated the status and meaning of individual interest and values.  One should know that the development of collective interest guarantees the development of individual interest.  Collective interest is not simply the sum of individual interest.  Therefore, when the two are in conflict, an individual should sacrifice personal interest in order to protect the collective interest.

The traditional ethical system passed the test and learned the lesson.  It assimilated the strengths of its opponents and substantiated its position.  For example, social humanism has gotten away from the influence of the "left" extremists.  It has put more emphasis on moral subjectivity and individual morality, affirmed the importance of individual interest, validated the significance of ethics in a socialist society.  The publication of Luo Guo-jie's Lun-li-xue [Ethics] clearly demonstrated such a position.  However, the debate will continue.  For this is a crucial and complicated issue.

The second issue concerns the impact of market economy on social morality.  A group of scholars point out that market economy will lower moral standard in the society.  For what lies behind market economy is individual interest.  People are tempted to act in immoral ways and even break the law in order to grasp interest.  Market economy will also exploit human value and dignity.  Human personality will be twisted.  The only thing left is ones market price.  The money element will be introduced into other social relationships.  Everything will be commercialised.  With the moral order being ruined, ones social environment will be affected too.  Another group scholar think that market development will promote moral development and advancement.  For market economy would set one free.  A free, autonomous, self-strengthening, democratic and independent personality will be nurtured.  Everyone is free and equal in the market.  The market economy also demands impartiality and honesty.  Morality is expressed through economic activities, which in turn elevates human spirit and morality.  Still another group think that the above two positions are superficial.  Market economy gives both positive and negative impacts.  "The possible choice is neither thinking naively in keeping the good and discarding the bad nor thinking impractically in leaping over it."  The possible choice is, in order to protect other social values that we cherish, we should use democratic politics to intervene and restructure the basic social patterns that constitute the background of our daily life.
 

The third question is: Do we need to "re-establish" or "restructure" morality in order to accommodate the development of socialist market economy?  The first group advocating "re-establish" and "restructure" morality believe that the Communist collective morality and the Confucian ethics have no impact on market economy.  Thus, what we need is an ethics that accepts the authenticity of the actualization of personal interest and the fulfilment of ones personal needs.  This is a personal aggressive morality.  The second group think that market economy has its own moral principles.  These principles will only be fully flourished in the context of market economy.  The social ethical level of the market economy will change when the ethical economy persons become social majority.  The ethical principles of market economy, such as fair deal, open competition, honest service, will change from marginal values to core values of the society.  Then restructure is inevitable.  The majority view in China is:  since our morality has built upon the foundation of our traditional culture, political system,and social values, it should not be changed just because of economic change.  The more important point is: the present moral system should have enough capacity to allow healthy development of market economy.   Thus, what we need is not restructuring but a partial adjustment, replenishment and development.  It is not necessary to break down the old system in order to "restructure."  This kind of drastic change is unnecessary.

The third area is economic ethics.  A group of scholars advocate that there are three levels of economic activities.  Correspondingly, there are three levels of economic ethics.  The first level deals with ethical issues related to market economy and national planning.  The second level handles question related to the moral conduct of local economic activities and moral conduct within a vocation. The third level manages those issues related to the economic behaviours between the consumers and the company.  Li Yi-ning's Jing-ji Lun-li-xue [Economic Ethics] is a research output of the first level reflection.  There are some articles and books on the third level reflection.  Yet, research at the second level has not been started.  This is a promising field without many mature works.

The fourth area is professional ethics.  Research in this area was launched in the 1980s.  There are many books on professional ethics.  The professions include teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, solicitors, businessmen, farmers.  Recently, in the 1990s, professional ethics has become a hot subject.  It has raised attention not only from few scholars but also from every walk of life in general and the government bodies in particular.  This time the central concern is the professional conduct of government officials.   There are many books and articles being published in this area.

China needs to have an ethic which fits well with its national character and its pace in the modernization process.   Its foundation must be built upon the establishment of the Chinese socialist modernization and the realization of the unification of the nation.  With the guide of Marxism and taking the good elements from both the Chinese and Western ethical traditions, there should be unceasing renovation and development.  Ethicists expect, after several years of hard labour, Chinese ethics will be as shiny as before and as glorious as its nation.